Stay Stronger
by Phayn
Summary: A younger Izuku wishes to be hero against all odds. Enter Yagi Toshinori, a gaunt looking but kind man who's willing to help. (Or a story where a younger Izuku meets Toshinori instead of All Might)
1. Chapter 1

"Someday I'm gonne be a great hero just like All Might!"

Toshinori Yagi smiled a little sadly as he heard a child's voice yell those words through the shop he was in. He was tired after all the villains that thought it would be a good idea to start up some trouble today. It wasn't that he couldn't handle it, they were mostly just petty villains who wanted to make some fast money. But there were quite a lot and adding the fact that there was now a time limit on how long he could be All Might… It made things quite stressful for him.

It has now been more than a year since his fight with All for One and the scars still run deep through his mind and body.

He coughed and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief to get rid of the blood that came up. He looked at the clothing before him and picked up two t-shirts and compared which one would be better.

White is the best colour, black would just make me look even more sickly, Toshinori thought as he picked the white one when a voice called behind him.

"Um, sir, are you sure you want one of those? They seem a little too big for your size, I could help you search for one that fits you," an employee from the store says to him as she looked a little scared at his gaunt looks.

Toshinori smiled a little awkward as he scratched his neck. "Ah, don't worry about it. I know it may seem a little weird but I really need them this size." They were way too big, he knew, but it had fit both of his forms to avoid embarrassing himself.

The employee looked at him a little weirdly, judging the oversized clothes he was wearing at the moment. "Well, if you are certain sir..."

"I really am, though thank you for the help," Toshinori assured her and tried smiling as he went back to his shopping.

He went to pay for his shirt as he saw 4 boys by the entrance of the store, one of them looked very close to bursting into tears.

Oh dear.

He finished paying for his shirt and walked towards the little group as the 3 of them started taunting a little green haired boy.

Izuku was close to tears as Kacchan and his group of followers started yelling at him again. He had just seen a commercial about heroes on the televisions in the store and told the others he wanted to be just like them when he was old enough to be a hero.

"What are you talking about Deku, as if you could ever be a hero," Kacchan sneered at him. "You are such a cry baby and you don't even have a fucking quirk!"

Izuku flinched at his crude words. "B-but Kacchan, I'm sure my quirk will come soon. Then we can be heroes together!" he finished a little excited, confidence returning.

This was the wrong thing to say it seems, as Katsuki's face exploded into anger. Katsuki has always seen himself as the best. After he got his quirk all the adults started saying he was amazing and very lucky to get such an amazing ability. So when Izuku didn't get a quirk, it felt as if he was beneath Katsuki.

"Be a hero together with you, what the hell are you talking about Deku?!" Katsuki rages. "As if I ever want to work together with such a useless person as you. How could you even think to compare yourself to me, I'll be the best hero that ever _existed_! And I do NOT want to be seen with such a loser as you!

"Yeah Deku, Katsuki is gonne be a great hero, why would you think you could even become a hero?!" one of his followers said.

Izuku shrank at the harsh words and teared up a little, he opened his mouth to answer when a calm voice suddenly spoke behind them.

"Is there a problem here?"

They all swirled around to see who was talking.

Izuku's eyes widened at the size of the man, he was huge and looked scary! He had to say something before something bad could happen.

"U-u-uh, t-there is no p-problem s-sir!" Izuku stammered nervously as he looked towards Katsuki who still looked angry hoping that he didn't do something just as he yelled.

"What the hell do you want?" Katsuki sneered. Izuku mentally groaned, why did Katsuki always feel the need to pick fight, didn't he see how scary the man was!?

"You do know that bullying is bad right," the blonde man admonished a little awkwardly.

"This is none of you business, Deku was just being stupid, right Deku?" Katsuki asked pointedly at Izuku.

"Now now my boy, there is no need to say such things about each other, why don't you guys run along now before this gets out of hand," the man said before Izuku could answer.

Katsuki looked angrily at Izuku but apparently didn't think the fight was worth it as he turned around.

"Tch, whatever old man," Katsuki said as he and the other boys walked away.

Izuku looked with wide eyes as the others walked away and teared up a little again. 'Did they just leave him with this stranger, oh god they did. They came here together and he promised his mother he would go home with the others. Didn't they know it was dangerous to speak with strangers, let alone be together with one? Even though he started speaking with us but that doesn't really matter here but it was still dangerous-'

"-y. My boy!"

Izuki looked startled up. "O-oh, what is it s-sir?"

"Are you alright? You suddenly started mumbling." The man asked concerned.

"I-it's fine sir, I do that all the time." Izuku said awkwardly.

He looked at him a little doubtful but accepted the answer. "Now where are your parents? We wouldn't want you wandering around here alone."

"Ah, they aren't here but I know my way home, don't worry about it!" Izuku tried to assure the man and at the same time turned around to walk away.

But as Izuku set the first step the ground started shaking. What is this, a villain attack? No wait, this was an earthquake! It was also a pretty bad one as the trembling didn't stop after a few seconds. Everything that was loose moved and fell down. It was so bad that even the walls started cracking.

'Run outside, that's what you need to do!' Izuku thought panicky.

Just as he was about to make a run for the door he saw the roof starting to collapse.

"Watch out!" The tall man from before screamed when everything came crashing down.


	2. Chapter 2

AN/ Thank you all for taking a liking to this story, I didn't expect that many w

Sorry for the delay though! I'll try to post the next chapter within 2-3 days!

I don't think I said this last chapter but English is not my native language and I don't have a beta reader, so sorry for any mistakes!

I also do not own Boku no Hero Academia w

Toshinori suddenly had a bad feeling. He didn't know what it was but he better get the boy to his parents soon. He was about to reach out for the boy when he saw he was about to walk away, when the ground started shaking.

An earthquake!

He had to get himself and the other people outside before something could hurt them. He looked around thinking of a way to accomplish that. There are five people still in the store of which two of them where already almost at the exit of the store. That only left himself, the young boy and the cashier at the other end of the store. The cashier was already starting to run towards the door so he should be fine but when he looked at the boy he saw him panicking.

No good, he reached out to the boy so he could carrier him outside when the quakes became even stronger. Toshinori heard people screaming as he saw the walls and the ceiling from the store crumbling down, one of the piece just about to hit the boy.

"Watch out!" Toshinori screamed at the boy. He reached for the boys arm and wrapped his body protectively around him as pieces of rubble hit his side and shoulder.

He felt pain rush through his body as he kept protecting the boy, he hoped that the cashier was still alive as the world went black around him.

Izuku groaned when he slowly awoke. His head hurt and he felt sand in his mouth as he coughed. He tried to remember what happened but everything felt so fuzzy. He opened his eyes to look around but the world swirled around him and was dark so he quickly closed them again.

What had happened, some kind of attack? Izuku thought as he slowly sat up, eyes still closed.

He felt something warm and wet as he put his hand down and he tried opening his eyes again to see what it was, this time greeted with the sight of rubble and scary man from before!

Only this time the man the man didn't look as scary as before, he was unconscious and hurt. The man was partly leaning over him, protecting him partly from the rubble while the rest of it was stopped by one of the support beams from the building.

That's right, it was an earthquake.

Izuku felt his eyes water as the situation finally struck him. He was trapped under the rubble, the scary man was hurt because of him and he had no way out.

Tears started falling down his cheeks as he started panicking when the man suddenly groaned, startling him.

Izuku shook his head while he kept crying, he first had to help the man. There is no time for panicking now, this man was hurt because of him and he could help him.

Resolved, Izuku wiped away his tears and turned towards the man and started looking for wounds. He had felt something wet on his hand so there was probably something bleeding. He found the wound on the man's shoulder, some of the stones were sharp enough to leave a shallow but long cut.

Izuku sighted in relief that the wound wasn't anything grievous when he saw a big scar on the man's side and stomach. It looked like it was from a surgery not too long ago as the scars hadn't even started fading away.

Swallowing in fear, Izuku started looking for wounds around the scar but luckily found nothing. It would have been really bad if that opened up again.

Izuku ripped part of his t-shirt so he could wrap it around the cut on the man's shoulder. He tried to imitate how his mother and the nurse at school would always wrap his wounds and hoped he did at least a half decent job.

That done, Izuku sat back and looked around him and after a while, tears started welling up again with nothing to distract him…

When Toshinori woke it was to the small sobs of a child and pain all over his body. He opened his eyes and saw the child from earlier looking at him sadly as tears ran down his face. The boy gasped as he saw he had woken up.

"U-um, sir, are you alright sir?" The boy sniffed as he asked timidly. "I-I wrapped your shoulder, it's got a cut you see and I once too had a cut and my mom wrapped it so I knew what to do. Or at least I tried to, I'm not an expert but I at least had an idea what to do. Do you think it's alright the way I did it, I didn't want to hurt you anymo-"

Toshinori sighed mentally, this boy really needed to do something about his rambling, already lost in all the words the boy was saying.

He looked at himself and found that, while bruised, there were no serious wounds and Toshinori looked around to assess the situation, it looked like they were safe for now at least. No more rubble was falling down and had been in a public place with a lot of people when the earthquake started, so help should come fast.

"I'm alright, don't worry about it." Toshinori interrupted the boy who fell still at his words, only to start tearing up again.

"Really, don't worry about it, what's your name, my name is Toshinori Yagi." He tried to keep the boy calm, it would be bad if he panicked here.

"M-my name is I-Izuku Midoriya, s-sir. But s-sir, you were wounded because of me and I-"

"Midoriya," Toshinori interrupted again," I know you didn't mean for me to get hurt, but I did this to protect you. It was my own choice and I do not regret it, I would do it again if I had the chance."

Midoriya looked at him with wide eyes now.

"Besides," He smiled as reassuringly as he could," These wounds aren't that bad, this won't hold me down!"

Midoriya smiled a sad little smile then. "I-I would still like to apologise. You tried to help me back then with Kacchan- he, uh, was the blonde boy. And I thought you were really scary and I was very rude, but you still tried to save me."

The boy smiled a little more confidently then," And what you did was really cool, like a real hero! So I'm very sorry I misjudged you like that and I'm sorry you got hurt because of me."

Toshinori looked at the boy in surprised wonder, he was touched. After the fight with All of One people only started looking up to his All Might form. Because of his now gaunt looks in his true form, people were scared of him, and that hurt him. He had always been a nice person in nature and when suddenly everyone started being scared of you, he didn't really know how to deal with it. It had been a long year since he saw such an honest expression from a stranger. Especially from a child, the ones who were usually scared the most.

"I'm glad I could help you Midoriya, you are a kind person," Toshinori smiled and lifted his uninured arm up to ruffle the boy's hair. "Now we only need to wait a little while and some heroes will help us out of here!"

Midoriya grinned up brightly at him.


	3. Chapter 3

They both felt silent after the conversation, waiting for help to arrive.

Izuku was glad he got to know the man better. His mom always told him that while you always need to be careful with strangers, some can actually be quite nice, even if their appearance is scary. He still felt a little guilty about misjudging Toshinori as much as he had but he was glad he met him.

Of course he rather would have gotten to know him in a different situation, but it did get him to look past Toshinori's appearance and that at least made him happy.

He would need to remember this lessen, so he wouldn't make the same mistake. But he also had to be cautious as some people where still dangerous.

Izuku sighed, why couldn't people just be a little less complicated and be nice to each other for once. It would make his life so much easier.

Toshinori was nice though, a real hero! Izuku smiled.

He thought about the start of the earthquake, if he hadn't frozen up and just ran towards the exit they both wouldn't need be here. He was a lot smaller than the man so Toshinori could have made it out easily before Izuku, but instead he rescued him. The man had even gotten hurt but he still wasn't mad at him!

If only he hadn't frozen up and reacted like a hero, or at least like a reasonable human being and ran for the exit. A hero wouldn't have frozen, they would have looked around to help people to safety.

Like Toshinori.

Izuku looked up shyly at Toshinori, the man was looking up at the ceiling, or what was left of it at least. Maybe he could help him become a hero. What was his quirk even, he hadn't used it while rescuing him. Izuku sighed once more and then yawned, he was starting to get tired.

Did the man think he could become a hero, even if he…- even if he didn't have a quirk?

Izuku didn't like thinking about it, being quirkless. He was always saying that his quirk would still come to his classmates, especially Kacchan. After he went to the doctor and they said he didn't have a quirk and would never get one, he was devastated. At first he kept denying it when his classmates where picking on him, saying that he was quirkless and useless, not wanting to believe it. But every time he denied it while his mom was around, she looked so sad as if it were her fault. It made him feel guilty, he didn't want his mom to feel that way.

So he stopped denying it, if only to himself.

He knew he didn't have a quirk, it would be hard, but that wouldn't stop him from becoming a hero. He has read mangas and stories about people who were heroes even without powers. They used their smarts or trained their bodies to help people, to be a hero!

So Izuku had made a decision. If he didn't have a quirk, he would train himself as best as he could. He didn't really know how you could train to become smart, he worked very hard at school but that wasn't the kind of smarts you needed as a hero.

So he started observing heroes.

What do they do in which situation? What techniques do they use? How do they use it? And most importantly, what are their flaws and how could they perform better.

He started making notes about a year ago and every time he saw a hero fight, he would observe them and analyse the way they fought and try to learn from it.

While he had started learning from observing the fights, he still hadn't found a way to train his body. He had searched for ideas and came up with going to a gym, but his mom thought he was still too young to go so that had failed.

One thing he had learned from watching the fights though, was that freezing up was a really bad idea. You shouldn't hesitate otherwise you would get hurt.

That was however exactly what he did today, only he didn't get hurt. Toshinori had taken the hit for him.

"S-sir, can I ask you a question?" the green haired boy asked a little tentatively.

The man was almost dozing off but quickly looked up, startled by the sudden question. "O-of course my boy, what can I help you with?"

"I-um, was wondering sir, how did you know how to react so fast and save me?"

Toshinori blinked, looking surprised. "Oh, well. That's mainly because I was looking if everyone could make it out safely and saw that you were about to get hurt. Why do you ask?"

That is exactly what a hero should do, Izuku thought a little sadly and said, "Well, you see, I want to become a hero and now that I think back on the situation, I just froze there. I should have been doing the same as you but I ended up being useless and even a danger to others!"

Izuku looked down and blinked tiredly, Kacchan was right, he was useless. He shouldn't be thinking about saving others when he can't even save himself and just got other people hurt!

"Midoriya..." Toshinori said a little hopelessly. "You shouldn't thi-…"

"I-it's just that it has always been my dream. I really look up to all the heroes helping people. At first I thought they were just really cool but once I learned- … Once I learned that I didn't have a quirk it made me think about the possibility about still being a hero. I thought that maybe with training I could still become one, but it's so hard-" Izuku sniffed there," If I can't even react to a dangerous situation, how will I ever be able to help people. Being a hero isn't only about being cool, but also about facing dangerous people and dangerous situations."

Izuku wiped his tears away as he continued. "I never really realised that but after you saved me I do. When I was in the same situation however, I just froze there! You didn't do that at all, without even using your quirk you saved me without thinking, sacrificing yourself no matter if you got hurt. You are a real hero in my eyes and I- I don't know if I can do that too, even if it's my dream."

Izuku looked at the man with desperation. "Do you think I could still become a hero?"

Toshinori looked at Izuku with a sad look and sighed. "I wish I could help you but being a professional hero without a quirk will be very difficult to say the least. I wish that I could help you but I don't know if I can, but you are still young and have lots of options in the future. However, this is not the place to talk about these kinds of topics ."

Izuku felt a little broken, his dream crumbling with every word Toshinori spoke, only a tiny spark remaining.

"I'm also feeling a little... tired…" Toshinori yawned as he kept looking sadly at him. "I think we should wait for help before speaking further about this…" After he finished speaking those words he quickly fell asleep.

Izuku, while still being heartbroken about his shattered dreams (he knew that it wasn't the end but it certainly felt that way), couldn't help but be alarmed at how sudden Toshinori fell asleep.

"U-um sir," Izuku sniffed as he tried to wake the man. "Sir?" he shook the man's uninjured arm as he repeated himself.

However Toshinori didn't wake up. Now more than a little alarmed, Izuku started shaking the man more forcefully.

There was still no reaction and Izuku felt himself starting to panic. He looked around but there was still no way out and he realised that he was also getting tired. Not only was it that but his headache was getting worse too.

The situation started to overwhelm Izuku, with his headache and the hollow feeling of his broken dream, when he suddenly realised something.

How long have they been buried under the rubble?

He was the first to wake up but he didn't know how long he was unconscious. Suddenly falling asleep is not normal and his headache, while it could be explained if he had hit something unknowingly, pointed to the fact that there wasn't enough air anymore.

He had read about cases like these, people still alive under the rubble of buildings but dying because there wasn't enough air. Most of the time the people didn't even realise it as they would fall unconscious because of the lack of oxygen and die in their sleep.

Izuku wiped the last of his tears away and felt the panic that was about to overwhelm him slipping away.

While he may have frozen up when the earthquake started, he could now do something about the situation and he was not about to let his saviour die.

Determined, Izuku rolled up his sleeves and looked at the rubble before him.


	4. Chapter 4

I had quite some troubles with this chapter as I don't really know how to write Naomasa. I myself see him as a good friend of Toshinori even when they life separate lives, and he is a very honest person but can still be a little sly at times when he wants too.

BNHA is still not mine owo)/

Still don't know what to think of the chapter but I hope you guys like it!

Toshinori woke up to a white ceiling, blinked a few times and then groaned.

You would think that Toshinori would have come to hate hospitals or at least have an aversion to them with all the time he has spent in them. After he was grievously wounded with a hole in his stomach they had kept him there for almost two months. Now he still needed to come once in a while for check-ups to be certain nothing went wrong with the operation or if his condition worsened somehow.

But Toshinori always saw hospitals in a positive light. While there are lots of horrible things in a hospital, they are there to make it all better, healed, when possible at least. And otherwise at least to lessen the pain.

That didn't erase the fact that he was probably wounded if the pain in his shoulder was saying anything. And being wounded is never fun.

Toshinori heard a chuckle and turned his head to see his friend Naomasa sitting next to him and quirked a smile.

Through the years Naomasa has been a great friend to him, he was an honest man and did what he thought was right even in difficult situations. Toshinori always appreciated that in a person.

"So what happened this time?" Toshinori asked groggily with a wry smile, his memory was a little foggy but he remembered an earthquake and a collapsed building.

Why does he always get in these kinds of situations even when in his original form?

"Well," Naomasa began, "there was quite a heavy earthquake that hit the city yesterday, the hospital has been quite busy as multiple buildings have collapsed and you were inside one of them when that happened." He finished a little pointedly.

Toshinori's eyes cleared up and widened at that and sat up quickly.

"Where is the boy that was with me?!" Toshinori asked urgently as he winced as he jostled his arm. "Is he alright?"

That's right, the little quirkless boy that was with him. Toshinori hadn't gotten a good look at him when he had woken up under the rubble, it had been too dark and dusty, and so he didn't know if he had been wounded during the collapse.

"Don't worry Toshi, the boy is quite alright with only some wounds on his arms and hands, nothing life threatening." Naomasa said assuredly. "Quite a special boy though, the one you were with. He could almost be called your hero." Naomasa eyes gleamed with amusement at the thought of that boy being All Might hero.

Toshinori looked at him in askance, he couldn't really remember what happened. After he talked with the boy about him being quirkless everything started getting a little fuzzy. He did however remember the sad face of the boy after he practically told him it was better to give up his dreams.

He winced at that thought and asked. "What happened? I think I'm missing a few key points."

Naomasa turned serious again and explained, "After the building collapsed you two were trapped under the rubble, don't worry, everyone else escaped the building before that happened." He added probably knowing that Toshinori would worry about that.

"You were quite lucky as there was a support beam above you as the building collapsed around you. That way you weren't immediately crushed and most of the weight and rubble fell on the beam, creating a hole for you guys. There was however a problem with getting you guys out of there. Because of the chaos in and around the city a lot of the heroes and police personal were busy and didn't realise you guys were trapped there. This wouldn't have been a problem as they could have gotten you two out later once they were notified about it. The space you guys were trapped in was however slowly running out of air, meaning you would have eventually choked to death." Naomasa grimaced at that, "I'm sure you can imagine the situation you were in."

Yes, these situation happen quite often Toshinori thought. Heroes and police can't be everywhere at once and sometimes come too late at a scene to be of help.

"What happened then, if we were in such a poor situation?" Toshinori asked.

"That's were your little hero comes into play, to be honest I am quite baffled with what he did." He said with thoughtful look on his face.

"He told us that he realised the situation you guys were in as he had read about it before and that knew he had to act fast, otherwise you both would have died. He then proceeded to dig his way out. He said he followed the support beam and made a hole that went up, this way the chance of the rubble collapsing on to him was minimal and he dug himself out after about what we think an hour of digging, he called for help."

At this Naomasa looked at Toshinori sombrely," You were really lucky he did that, you wouldn't have lasted much longer if help hadn't come soon. Be more careful next time, I don't want to lose you over something like this. Being a hero alone makes me worry enough"

Toshinori swallowed at that," Of course Naomasa, but I couldn't let the boy get hit by the rubble, you know that." He looked a little pained at the police man.

While he was a great friend of him, they still lived in two different worlds with him being All Might. He had an image to uphold, one that could become very tiresome at times.

Toshinori knew that he was needed to keep it up for the sake of all heroes and the morality of the people so villains wouldn't have the upper hand like they had for so many years before him. He also knew that his friend would rather have him hidden away from all his responsibilities, save and healthy, especially now with his health being the way it is.

Naomasa sighed," I know that, I probably would have done the same thing in that situation, but I'd rather still not see you hurt."

"I know…" Toshinori said a little sadly." On that note however, how is young Midoriya doing," Toshinori asked to change the topic, "You said he was doing alright, he isn't hurt?"

"Well once the heroes got to him and he explained the situation he collapsed. I think he was only running on adrenalin and when he finally had gotten help it caught up to him so could finally let himself go in his exhaustion. We took him together with you to the hospital and treated the wounds on his hands, he had some pretty bad cuts on his there because of the digging but nothing life threatening as I already said. He is still in the hospital right now but I heard they would let him go this afternoon." At that he stood up.

"It is good to see you are alright Toshi but I need to go now and sort out some things. The earthquake has caused a lot of property damage and the police is quite busy at the moment," He says with a grimace.

"Yeah, same to you. I'll come and visit you once I get out of the hospital again." Toshinori said with an amused smile.

"Alright, get some more sleep and we'll talk sometime later, your doctor should come and check up on you some time later when everything has calmed down a little in the hospital." Naomasa nodded at Toshinori and he watched with a smile as he walked out the door.

He laid back down in his bed, careful with his shoulder, and thought about the situation he was saved from.

It was quite a novel thought, him being saved for once instead of him doing the saving. His little hero, he felt a little bad about what he had said before he had fallen unconscious. He had practically seen the way his words destroyed the boy's dreams, that wasn't what he intended to do but he was too out of it at the time to soften the blow.

He had only really been listening to all the disadvantages the boy has being quirkless and his whole story about not being good enough.

Now though, he saw that the boy had some real potential, maybe he could find a way to help. There was still always that option… But he is too young…

Thinking about the small boy and helping him, Toshinori's thoughts drifted away as he slowly fell asleep again.


End file.
